Author: masonschaerer@gmail.com

I woke up yesterday feeling a bit ill. During the previous night I had jolted up multiple times with my stomach in knots and bubbling with pain. Two days ago I had some acute punches of discomfort in my lower stomach, but I didn’t think anything of it. Yesterday it was a consistent throbbing that led to some good ol diarrhea. I still went to school hoping it would dissipate a bit after eating some breakfast and drinking a lot of water. The day lined up to be more of the same as earlier this week, except I was proctoring class 4 exams.

I was glad to be sitting down in a room of quiet students all day—if I was up and moving around it would have been brutal. Throughout the day I was taking a leave to the bathroom about every hour, so it was good I didn’t have anything to attend to.

I was super fatigued, because my meals weren’t sticking with me, so it was hard to do much of anything. I was relieved when I learned I didn’t have to go with the bus route because another teacher was able too.

I got home last night around 5:45 and slept until dinner time. Dinner was some delicious fish and Ugali, although I only had a small bit because I didn’t want to push my stomach. I was lucky to find a sprite in the fridge (the family is always offering me soda and I like to be healthy and say no, but this time I was practically begging for it).

I went right to bed after dinner, completely drained. I woke up this morning still with a bit of digestive issues, but I have more energy so that’s good. I’m hoping the sickness will pass today because we have sports and games which I don’t want to miss out on!

Yesterday I got to school a little before 7. The head teacher had asked me to come earlier so I could mark the exams from the prior day. When I showed up I was one of the only people at school other than some janitors and grounds keepers. I didn’t end up doing anything with my hour of extra time; Pius didn’t show up until 8:00 so the marking was put off.

I was stuck proctoring exams all day, again, but it was okay because I was kept busy with marking all of the previous exams. However, I was told that I will be supervising exams today and tomorrow as well, which I’m not excited for. I stayed at school until 5:30 grading and organizing and then went along with the bus route to drop kids off.

On the bus route home we went a new way for some remedial kids who were recently placed on our route. This took us towards Arusha’s city center about 30 minutes. Some of the houses we drove by amazed me. We went through a neighborhood where every single house was mansion. I wish I had got some pictures, but no luck. They reminded me of some of the La Jolla homes (minus the ocean view). I had a great time on this long drive home, I got to talk with one of the drivers who is hoping to study German so he can become a tour guide. He was saying that he is paid less than $5 a day, but is hoping to find a college he can go to during the day in between picking kids up in the morning and dropping them off in the evening. Once home around 7:30 I got to shower, have some dinner, help with some homework and then had a meeting at 9 with some teachers who are in a bit of trouble for not showing up to extra curricular activities (and I can’t blame them because they aren’t getting paid any extra and it asks them to commit 3 extra hours a week). Right to bed after that. I’m not having much time for reading these days and I’m a bit bummer:(

Yesterday started out like any other day. Up at 6:00 and off to school around 6:40. I had to go on the morning bus route alone for the first time. Normally I go with Abby and I just sit and hang out with the kids while she does all the arranging and what not. I never appreciated how difficult it is to fit 50 plus kids into a bus meant for 30.

At school I was thrown a curveball; I thought I was going to be teaching guitar in music class yesterday, but the head teacher wanted me to be supervising exams all day. In between exams, when the kids got an hour or two for break, I was as able to sneak away to the music room for a little bit. I can now play the melody to happy birthday, and am very proud of this feat because I learned it from reading sheet music! The kids in music were learning some theory yesterday, so they didn’t get to practice playing instruments. I missed out on a session of “Riveting Results” due to proctoring the tests. My days are beginning to get full to the point where I miss out on doing something things I had planned on getting done. I’m glad for this, I don’t like having nothing to do, but I also wish I had a little more time in my days.

I stayed after school to work on arranging the computers (or rearranging seeing as how this is my second or third time having to do this after the kids move around). This took much longer than I expected—about 3 hours—only because I had to inventory everything to make sure there were enough chargers and extension cables so every desk could have 3 computers AND a charger; previously many computers were without chargers while some had three or four and the computers without chargers were useless.

Samuel and I were the only remaining teachers when we left around 7. But, this was good because the security guard was waiting to head home too and he gave us a ride on his motorcycle.

I got home at 7:15 and surprisingly still had a lot of energy. Normally the long 12 hour days completely drain me, but I was feeling really good about what I’d got done.

Once home I showered and then got right to helping Rebecca with some studying. She has consistently been getting the lowest score out of her entire age group at the school on the recent exams. I’m afraid this is reflecting poorly on me as her private tutor! So we’re locking in a rigorous study schedule.

This was last nights delicious dinner! Rebecca and I ate while studying and finished around 9:30. Yesterday was a long one, from around 6:30 to 9:30 I didn’t have a single break in doing something. I didn’t feel too tired until I laid in bed and then it hit me. This morning I was really wishing I could sleep longer, but this thing called a J-O-B was calling my name.

Yesterday morning I went on the bus route (or root as it’s called). I like doing so provided that I slept enough the night before. It requires getting up around 5:30 and I’m not sure I could deal with the early morning kids if I were under slept. Anyways, it’s great seeing where all of the kids live and all the different areas.

The school day started with marking more exams! I thought it was over, but I guess it was just the start. Kids in class 4 and 7 (both kids I’m staging with—Jovin and Rebecca—are in those classes, respectively) are now having to take national exams. For them this means staying 2 hours extra everyday and adding Saturday to the much dreaded week. I couldn’t imagine having a 1 day weekend in middle school, I think I would’ve dropped out! For some teachers, me included, this means staying extra hours as well and getting home quite late. More on that later, what I was trying to say is this: The students in class 4 and 7 have national exams in 9 months, so they will be practicing all year long by taking frequent, school administered, exercise exams. So I have that to look forward to! But yesterday was actually great. Once I finished with the exam marking (which took a couple hours), I went to review it in class with students and then taught a bit of a lesson.

The rest of my day at school (from 2:00 until 5:30—yes, 5:30, remember the remedial class thing?) was spent individually placing keyboard stickers over Chinese printed keys on the new laptops the computer lab got. This task was extremely trivial and required no thinking at all, so I was able to listen to some music and a podcast! The computer room has a speaker (so they can play recorded readings of books) and I was able to jam out!

After remedial classes ended, all the kids were taken home on a new bus route. Boy was this fun! It took well over an hour and a half to figure out the new root for the remedial kids and it might have had something to do with the kids having to direct the driver to their houses (and decide among themselves the best—not necessarily most efficient) way to map us. Seeing the new areas was great and definitely the most exciting part of my day!

After getting home past 7, I was pretty burnt. I practiced guitar for a while until dinner. After that I went right to bed. Well, not right to bed; I showered, worked on a project, read, and then passed out.

Yesterday was a lazy day. I slept in until 8ish. I told the family to go to church without me, because I wanted some extra sleep, but they had the same idea and slept in as well.

My morning was spent doing dishes and a bit of laundry. I really enjoyed this because I got to listen to my music for the first time in a couple weeks. It was real quiet as Jovin and Lucas were still gone—away at Serengeti. We did chores for most of the day, up until the fellas got home around 5ish. Good thing it was a lazy day, Jovin wanted to play soccer right after getting home.

I played a bit of guitar, lounged around, and took everything very slow yesterday. I remade my bed for the first time and discovered an awesome reverse side to my blanket!

It feels like I’m starting this week off on the wrong foot, which is to say I’m moving very slowly. But I’m excited to be going back to school today and hopefully I’ll finally get a daily schedule/routine figured out for myself there.

Yesterday started as a very lazy day. I woke up at 7 and puttered around for a couple hours. I was really bored with nothing to do; maybe I’ve been taking my buddy Jovin for granted. I finally got moving with some chores and tasks around 9. At noon I got picked up to go to a Grand Praise concert!

Earlier this week, a teacher from school, Pamela, had invited me to join her. I wasn’t sure if I was going to go, especially because I was weighing the decision of going to Serengeti with Jovin and Lucas. Once I decided $300 was too expensive for 10 hours of driving and one night in the park, going to the concert just fell into place. The concert didn’t start until 3:00ish (with doors opening at 2:30) and I thought Pamela was crazy for wanting to get there at 1:00.

Turns out she was sane. I would say there were at least 2,000 people in attendance. The hall ended up being too small for all of the people; the seats were filled within 5 minutes, the standing room filled shortly after, and people who decided to come on time—not to mention the late comers—were forced to watch on a tv outside.

It was a pretty interesting event. We only stayed until 9:00, I’m not sure how much longer it went, but I was getting tired and hungry. The concert aspect was fun. It was like any other music performance, people danced and sang and what not, but then came the main sermon.

The sermon lasted for maybe 4 hours. I’m not exactly sure what was being done (because I’m not religious and it was all in Swahili), but it seemed to be an intense type of prayer/preaching with some singing sprinkled in. My legs got shaky from the amount of standing/dancing/swaying and it was like a sauna inside the room. On top of that it seemed like nobody was eating, drinking, or using the bathroom for 6 hours straight (I was an exception, I made sure to bring a bunch of water). It definitely felt spiritual. Although there were thousands of people it was a good time sit alone with myself and look internally.

At some points it got strange to me. And not because people were crying or hissing out prayers or screeching in an unusually high pitch, but because a few people began convulsing and were carried escorted to back room by event staff. There was one woman who was holding her body rigid like a plank of wood, arms stretched above her head, legs twisting and stretching, head thrown back (like an image out of The Exorcist), who was being held up by 10ish staff and carried, as well, to that back room. Whenever it got quiet in the auditorium, you could hear the individuals screaming prayers from the spiritual emergency room.

When I got home I had dinner and went straight to bed I was so tired. Even though my clothes were wet from sweat as if I’d got caught in a thunderstorm, I didn’t shower and passed out seconds after laying in bed. Overall it was a great experience. Like church I was appreciative of the time to be intrinsic with my thoughts, but it did feel a bit extreme and over the top. I also enjoyed the workout it gave me, I woke up this morning with sore legs and had to stretch em out a little bit. I don’t know if I’d go again. If it were just the music, definitely, but otherwise I felt like I was intruding on very private and holy moments that I don’t have enough appreciation for.

The lack of sleep wasn’t very bad yesterday. I normally get 7 to 8 hours, so I was nervous to be running off of 5ish hours. The bus route in the morning was a good wake up.

I normally have breakfast at home, but the school serves a breakfast every day as well. For the teachers it’s 4 slices of bread and a cup of black tea—for the kids it’s 2 slices and a sip. In the past I haven’t typically enjoyed tea (unless it’s black licorice); this tea is different. Every morning I look forward to my tea break at 10:30 and there must be a decent amount of caffeine because I always feel more alert starting around 11:00.

Yesterday I finally finished all exam grading and input them all into the grade book. I’ve spent quite a bit of time in excel this week, I’m starting to feel like a pro. I was a bit bummed because I was stuck inside while all the kids and most teachers were out doing relay races and games for sport and games Friday.

Whenever I wasn’t working on the exams I was in the music room helping grade homework and teach the kids. I’m really hoping I might be able to get a solid schedule next week and for the coming months, I don’t like hopping around and being pulled by multiple people. There were a couple times this week where people wanted me to be in two places at once and I felt bad I couldn’t.

Last night I had to do my week’s worth of laundry. The house seems like it will be quiet this weekend. Lucas is off with Jovin to Serengeti for today and will be back late tomorrow. Maggie and Sarah are leaving early tomorrow morning to get back to Sarah’s school in Uganda. Rebecca did very poorly on the exams (last in her grade overall), so I think she is being punished by not being able to do anything other than chores and study. I’m excited for the quiet weekend, it seems I should have some time to read or work on learning guitar!

Busy busy yesterday. We started off by missing the bus. I got into an argument with Jovin that we needed to walk to school, but he said he wasn’t allowed to walk. I thought this was him being lazy and upset, but in fact he was right and we ended up getting driven by his mom and being on time!

I spent my day between the dusty and quiet office where I finished exam grading and the computer room. It wasn’t all bad, I turned on some music and got to putting over 500 scores into excel by hand; it took about 3 hours and now I can type numbers with my eyes closed! Mid school day was spent with Maggie and Sarah again. Maggie had a lot of information about the program (Global StoryBridge) that she needed to get through, so we spent a while just listening to her.

For lunch we had dagaa (small dried fish) and it’s the first meal I’ve had that I haven’t enjoyed. I normally love fish, but seeing a full baby fish and chewing on it like jerky was quite off putting. After lunch I had a meeting with a teacher who wanted my help making an inventory and budget sheet for his small shop business. I stayed up until midnight working on this project after dinner at home; I did something similar back when I worked at Ben and Jerry’s but this was a good refresher on excel. I stayed at school until 6ish working on finishing the exam stuff only to find a couple scores were missing and this morning I’m going to have to really finish it (What a long process just for exam scoring!). When I got home Jovin insisted on playing some soccer. I was so tired but it was nice to do something active after sitting most of the day. And despite being really tired and having stayed up later than normal, I still struggled to fall asleep last night. I think because this was the first time in 3 weeks I had altered my bedtime by much, my body was confused and didn’t know that I wanted to go to sleep. Today is sports and games (previous Fridays it was skipped due to exams and/or schedule confusion) and I have to be on my A game for volleyball, so no being tired!

Every day feels as though it is a landmark. Nearly 3 weeks in Africa and I still can’t believe it. I often find myself day dreaming about the stories I will tell 50 years from now about this experience. And then I realize how large a portion of my adventure is still ahead of me!

Yesterday started in the early hours of night. Two new people arrived at Lucas’ house around 2 am; I woke up briefly, checked the time only to find it was a completely unreasonable hour to get out of bed to greet someone, went back to bed and waited until morning to say hi. Maggie and Sarah are from America and Uganda, respectively, and have come to teach about a program called Global StoryBridge and implement a site at Hope Girls and Boys School. I think it’s super special how many visitors these kids are having from other countries, it adds so much to their experience and variety of knowledge.

The day started by taking the school bus with Jovin and Rebecca. I was supposed to do more exam score input again, but was hindered by exams not being graded. Hopefully today I will be able to get it done because teachers are now asking me when scores will be ready. The rest of my day was spent with 3 teachers (Samwel, Pamela, and Lameck) and Maggie and Sarah. I’m happy how many new programs are popping up this year for the kids, I love being busy and the more stuff going on, the better. I went on the bus route again yesterday. I’m really enjoying this, it’s a good break in between school and going home. There are also these two adorable 2-year-old twins that go on the bus, so that’s a bonus. Two or three days ago (I forget), a parent was mad that the bus was late in dropping off his kids and threatened to fight the driver next time it happened. I didn’t think anything came of it—so yesterday when we were going on the route I noticed it had changed a bit. Turns out administration decided to make his kids the last stop on the route in a wonderfully petty move!

Once home, the day ended pretty quickly. I worked with Sarah and Maggie a little bit learning the how to use some softwares the kids will be using for their video projects. Dinner was delicious and then I practiced some guitar and went to bed.

Ahhh. Another good day. I feel I’m finally settling in. Although I don’t have a good routine, there’s some semblance of structure to my days. Yesterday stressed me out a bit at first because we were late getting to school, but once there I had a semi-schedule. Pius wanted me to continue working on the exams, but teachers still hadn’t finished marking so I couldn’t do that. Thankfully my buddy Ezekia (the music teacher) was there and I was able to practice some songs with him. Now I have “twinkle twinkle little star” and “happy birthday” under my belt. I spent the rest of the day in music class; I helped make some posters, teach the kids, and organize the room a bit more. I don’t know if it’s a language barrier or just how things work, but at the end of the day I was supposed to meet with a teacher to finally get the graded exams, but he had left school. When Pius helped me contact him he seemed unbothered and said “we’ll just do it tomorrow,” which makes me a bit worried about punctuality at the school (among other issues I’ve observed).

I was worried that once I settled in I would lose the excitement of everything going on, but no! Every day is brand new and brings some new experience that I would never even dream of. For example, yesterday I drove a car for the first time since being over here: We were running late to school and Lucas asked, “you know how to drive, right,” to which I said, “yup,” and off we went. It was so weird steering from the right side of the vehicle and driving on the left side of the road. Im used to a left-right-left intersection check (it’s a good sign that this is my instinct, I never really noticed I do it in the US, but now it’s wrong so I notice it every time) and boy does my head spin when I see cars on the wrong side of the road going to wrong directions. It’s also hard because it’s not just outside where everything is flipped, the interior of the car is also suffering from this spun-around-upside-down effect! The turn signal is on the right hand side of the wheel and its place has been taken by the windshield wipers! And imagine reaching with your left hand to change gears into reverse or drive! It’s fair to say I was a little confused and out of place in that drivers seat, but we made it to school and back safe as can be. It was actually quite lucky I had drove yesterday morning, because after school there was a downpour.